By Stephen Nelson Haskell
JOHN THE BAPTIST was not called the "beloved disciple," but the beloved disciple was no greater in the sight of heaven than John the Baptist. From his birth he was filled with the Holy Ghost. God had revealed himself to John the Baptist, and he bore record, saying: "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I knew him not; but He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost; and I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God." No man filled a more honorable calling than John the Baptist. He was the forerunner, and prepared the way of our Lord Jesus Christ. The prophet Isaiah, over seven hundred years before, had described him in the following words: "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God." Isa. 40 : 3. And yet the experience of his disciples and that of the disciples of the Saviour was quite different. The words which John proclaimed were words of power. Of his own work he says, "And now also the ax is laid unto the root of the trees; every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire." Luke 3 : 9. So confident was he that his work was of God that he assured the Pharisees that, although they might boast that they had Abraham to their Father, yet if they rejected his message, God would raise up of the stones children unto Abraham, rather than take them into his kingdom. He performed a work by the power of God that no other man ever did in so brief a time. So great was the excitement that "there went out unto him all the land of Judea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins." Mark 1 : 5. The Saviour said of him that "he was a burning and a shining light; and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light." John 5 : 35. The publicans came to him to be baptized, and said unto him, "Master, what shall we do?" The soldiers likewise demanded of him, "What shall we do?" and the people were in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ or not. But so far was he from taking any such glory that when he saw Christ coming unto him, he said: "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me; for he was before me. And I knew him not; but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water. And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him." John 1 : 29-32. He also spoke of Christ as the one that had the bride, and himself as the friend of the bridegroom, who rejoiced because of the bridegroom's voice; and said of him, "He must increase, but I must decrease." He even spoke of him as coming from above, and himself and all others as of the earth, earthly. John 3 : 26-31. John was greatly disappointed in the kingdom not being set up. His disciples also must have shared in his disappointment. In his work he reproved Herod for having taken his brother's wife, and for this Herod laid hold on him, and cast him in prison. While John was in prison, a question seemed to have come into his mind as to whether Jesus was the Messiah or not. The disciples of John also saw differences between the disciples of Jesus and themselves. They therefore came to Jesus and said, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not?" The Saviour replied, "Can the children of the bride chamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast." Matt. 9 : 14, 15. Christ plainly told them that the difference in the experience of these two classes of disciples was so great that the former could not appreciate the latter. The difference as the Saviour increased in popularity was more manifest; for "the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John (though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples)" (John 4 : 1, 2); consequently the Saviour, to save any jealousy between them, "left Judea, and departed again into Galilee" (verse 3). The Saviour illustrated the impossibility of the disciples of John, while holding to their experience, and viewing matters from their standpoint, appreciating the experience of his disciples, by the parable of putting a piece of new cloth on an old garment. "No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse." Matt. 9 : 16. The cloth would shrink, and in its shrinking would tear from the old garment and make the rent worse. He illustrated it still further by the parable of putting new wine into old bottles. He said: "Neither do men put new wine into old bottles; else the120bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish; but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved." Verse 17. But did not God accept the disciples of John? and had not their experience been a genuine Christian experience? Why, then, the difference? The light as revealed by our Saviour was far in advance of the light as revealed by John; but the light revealed by John was as true and essential and important as that revealed by Christ; but the greater light took the place of the less. This is further shown in the brief account given of certain disciples in Ephesus, who said, when asked by the great apostle to the Gentiles, "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" "We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost." The apostle then asked them, "Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John's baptism. . . . They were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus." Acts 19 : 2-5. An important lesson we draw from the facts here presented. First, that John was a man of God, and filled as important a position as was ever filled by any man in the cause of God. Second, his disciples were thoroughly converted to his work, and therefore could have had nothing but a genuine experience in the things of God. Third, the advancing light by Christ's entering upon his mission would give them an advanced experience beyond that which they had received in connection with the work of John the Baptist. Fourth, while resting on their old experience, they could not appreciate the experience of the disciples that were with the Saviour; for to undertake to receive that experience while in that condition would be like putting unwrought cloth on an old garment. It would lead them to lose all their confidence in God. It would be like putting new wine into an old skin bottle that had been stretched to its utmost capacity, so that the new wine would only break the bottle, and cause the wine to perish. Fifth, the time would come when these disciples would gain an advanced experience; and when that experience was gained, and they had learned of the outpouring of the Spirit of God, they were rebaptized, and enjoyed the fullness of a blessing which before they had not experienced. Sixth, by the reception of the Holy Spirit, they had enlarged views of God's work, and more correct ideas of the development of the truth as it was in Jesus.